Rabbi Yaakov Fisch shares some of his views on the very important and not so important issues in life.

Saturday, March 2, 2019

Let's Choose Wisely

When Adar Arrives, Increase Your Joy. The sages have taught us this timeless mitzvah over the last few millennia. It sounds like a pretty simple mitzvah to perform. Just be happy and joyous. As with most meaningful things in life, internalizing happiness and joy in life can be quite challenging. Most people are mistaken to think that happiness is reserved for the folks with no problems and stress in life. In fact, the people that are happy and grateful must choose to be of that, and people that are miserable must choose to internalize the misery. This is not to discount the genuine hardship and sometimes tragic events that individuals encounter but whether someone will be in a state of perpetual happiness or misery is their choice. I have been speaking for a while about the need to be grateful and how that is a catalyst to joy. In the same vein, I came across an article “Six Simple Strategies for Achieving Misery” by Dr. Sol Herzig which articulates this well. These are his thoughts:

1. Cling to Entitlement: Always feel entitled, that life owes you, that you were born to receive. Always look for the injustice in others having something that you do not, and do not agree to any concession or compromise.

2. It’s all personal: Always assume that everything was done with evil intentions. Always try to find malicious intent and seize every opportunity to see it as conclusive proof that you do not matter to others.

3. Focus on Problems: Keep careful track of all your problems and continually review them. Nurture the attitude that you can’t move on to anything unless everything is resolved first.

4. Magnify Everything: Do not cheat yourself out of misery by maintaining perspective. Try to cultivate negative thinking in respect to every mistake or mishap and magnify it, without allowing for regret or forgiveness.

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About Me

One of the philosophies I very much subscribe to is the vision of the Alter of Slabodka who taught about the " Greatness of Man".The fact that every person can achieve greatness and accomplish things in this world that no else can. A good leader has followers but a great leader inspires and motivates others to become leaders.